While other Filipinos are excited about Philippine food being included in Netflix’s new series Street Food which features the flavors of Asia, renowned Philippine director Erik Matti slammed the Cebu episode for its bad research and its decision to focus on the bizarre Pinoy food rather than street food that identifies the Filipino palette.

“ The #Cebu episode of #StreetFood at @netflixph borders on poverty porn. The dishes except for lechon are food that are not really a staple of Filipinos. All the other Asian countries had their classic world-renowned street food while we had…bizarre. Bad research. There are hundreds of original Filipino street food and they chose to show an esoteric eel dish and a goddamn chinese fried vegetable lumpia! Whada₱@ck!,” he said in his Instagram post.

A post shared by erikmatti (@erikmatti) on Apr 29, 2019 at 12:18am PDT

His tirade, when it crossed platforms and was met with mixed reactions from social media users. There were those that criticized the director for his dismissal of bakasi as a food that does not represent the Philippines when it is a widely regarded Cebuano dish. Many believed that Matti was making a fuss because the show did not focus of a Luzon dish as a highlight. This prompted the director to write another post on Twitter to defend himself from accusations of snobbery.

Di ko pinapaglaban na Manila food ang ishowcase. Ilonggo ako. Kahit saan galing ok lang yan. Cebu lechon is one of the best in the country. But I don’t think it would hurt to choose a generally regarded Filipino street food to best represent our country to the rest of the world.